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Pakistan Votes No on the War on Terror
By Stanley Kurtz
Everyone, from the editorial board of the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal to President Bush, seems to be delighted with the results of the election in Pakistan. Color me skeptical. Have a look at this article declaring that: “Pakistan Victors Want Dialogue With Militants,” and you’ll see why. Pakistan’s victorious opposition parties are signaling a new approach to terrorism. That strategy “is more likely to be responsive to the consensus of the Pakistani public than was Mr. Musharraf’s and is more likely to shun a heavy hand by the military and rely on dialogue with the militants.” Ah, democracy — or rather, “democracy.”Let’s review. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban make their headquarters in the hills of northwest Pakistan. From Pakistan, they launch assaults against NATO’s forces in Afghanistan and spawn terror plots against Europe. Pakistan harbors Osama bin Laden and others responsible for 9/11, a network that actively continues to plan mass-terror attacks on the U.S.Thus, the U.S. has every right to go to war with Pakistan. That we have not done so is a matter of prudence, given the fact that the chaos of war could leave some of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons or materials in bin Laden’s hands. Rumor has it that, shortly after 9/11, when President Bush presented President Musharraf with the choice to stand “with us or against us,” Bush made it clear that choosing “against” would mean a devastating military attack. This is the essential background against which the results of Pakistan’s election have to be assessed. We seem to have forgotten these fundamental facts.
Read Pakistan Votes No on the War on Terror — By Stanley Kurtz
Iraq Is Not the Worry
By Victor Davis Hanson
General David Petraeus — a sort of combination of Fabius Maximus (“unus homo…”) and Matthew Ridgway — has changed the entire Iraqi war, and thereby given us a breathing spell to reflect on our longer-term strategies of victory.Most of the conventional pessimism about Iraq is being proven wrong. For example, the recently translated captured diary of the dead al-Qaeda terrorist — Abu Maysara, a senior adviser to Abu Ayyoub al-Masri — reveals a sort of hopelessness. The dead Maysara laments that al-Qaeda has lost the hearts and minds of the people to the U.S. and its Iraqi allies, while suffering terrible battlefield losses. Abu Maysara did not write as some civilian defeatist, the equivalent of our own Moveon.org antiwar protesters. He was instead a frontline fighter, once confident of victory in the field, but realistically broken by defeat — before he was killed.
Read Iraq Is Not the Worry — By Victor Davis Hanson
Pessimistic Predictions
By Jonathan Schanzer
When good news arrives from Iraq, most Americans celebrate. But not the Middle East studies professors who are often quoted in the mainstream press. For them, good news is bad news.Testimony from General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is one of an increasing number of reports that the troop surge there has led to tangible improvements — so much so that even some of the most outspoken opponents of the war acknowledge that things are looking up.
Read Pessimistic Predictions — By Jonathan Schanzer
Nonviolence Nonsense
By Victor Davis Hanson
Those who do not necessarily associate the name Gandhi with either humanitarian brotherhood or wisdom, and those who remember Mahatma’s idiotic thoughts about those facing the Holocaust ought to examine the latest Gandhi take on “the Jews” in the online edition of the Washington Post, this time from one Arun Gandhi.He is self-identified as the “President and co-founder of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence” and “the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. He is president and co-founder of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now at the University of Rochester in New York.”
Read Nonviolence Nonsense — By Victor Davis Hanson
One Happy Mob
By Michael Ledeen
As Matthew Levitt points out, we’ve been doing much better of late catching the Iranians, often in tandem with the Syrians, giving a lot of support to terrorists in Iraq. Better yet, we are slapping penalties on them, most recently on three terrorist supporters and leaders in Iran and one in Syria, where he runs the al-Zawra television station. Americans are henceforth forbidden to do business with these rogues, and if the USG - Iraq Reconstruction Task Force can get at any of their assets, we’ll grab them.That’s excellent news, and the announcement is helpfully accompanied by considerable documentation of the terrorists and their supporters singled out by our Treasury Department. Undersecretary Stuart Levey, who has been one of the driving forces behind this program, puts it in a broad context: Iran and Syria are fueling violence and destruction in Iraq. Iran trains, funds, and provides weapons to violent Shia extremist groups, while Syria provides safe haven to Sunni insurgents and financiers.
Read One Happy Mob — By Michael Ledeen
Lets Have a FISA Fight
By Andrew C. McCarthy
Here’s something I never thought I’d say: Three cheers for Chris Dodd! With his bid for the Democrats’ presidential nomination canceled for lack of interest, Connecticut’s senior senator is back to doing what he does best: making the United States vulnerable to foreign threats. The editors of the Wall Street Journal report that Dodd is blocking a deal to overhaul the dangerously obsolete Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Read Lets Have a FISA Fight — By Andrew C. McCarthy
Peace Promise
By The Editors
President Bush’s visit to the Middle East invites very mixed reactions. He arrived to tell Israelis and Palestinians that they each deserve a state. Fine. More than that, he anticipated “a signed peace treaty by the time I leave office” — that is, in a matter of months. The pursuit of peace is admirable, and cannot be achieved without some American input, but promissory notes of this sort have a way of becoming hostages to fortune. Even if a peace treaty were signed, mechanisms would not exist to enforce it. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is mistrusted, and stays in office by the skin of his teeth. President Bush calls for a pull-out from the West Bank, but if this means forcible dismantling settlements and the division of Jerusalem, Olmert cannot deliver it, and any attempt to do so would dangerously destabilize Israel. With grim symmetry, Mahmoud Abbas is unable to deliver the Palestinians. Divided between Fatah and Hamas, the Palestinians engage in low-level civil war, and are in no condition to form a society, never mind a state. Every day, Hamas fires rockets and mortars at Israel, Hezbollah threatens to do the same, and Abbas is powerless to act.
Read Peace Promise — By The Editors
Enter Islam or Else!
By James S. Robbins
Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam al Amriki, has come a long way since his days living on a goat farm and playing in his one-man death metal band Aphasia. The 30-year-old California native has quickly become the American face of al Qaeda — well, he became the face once he stopped wearing a mask. If he were just some lone nut rambling on his vidblog, who would invest an hour to listen to him, let alone do a write-up? But he works for Osama, and that alone gives him at least a paragraph in every media outlet in America. Azzam’s purpose is to make an appeal to the American people, to explain the current situation in the war and to exhort them to join in supporting al Qaeda and its cause. His message was directed especially to America’s veterans, who will soon begin to suffer from drug addiction, alcoholism, dementia, suicidal tendencies and other “Vietnam syndrome” conditions brought on by the numerous crimes they committed while at war. No worries, he says, Allah will forgive them if they sign onto the jihadist program and abandon the “satanic Crusader Zionist Hindu atheist apostate nexus sitting on the Muslims’ chest.” And if you’ve ever had a nexus on your chest you know how painful that can be.
Read Enter Islam or Else! — By James S. Robbins
Iraq Seen Plain
By Michael Ledeen
Back in February, Reuters was publishing a daily roundup of “security developments” in Iraq. On a random day, February 8 — it looked like this:RAFIYAAT — Gunmen shot dead 14 men from the same Sunni Arab family in a massacre near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, after storming two neighbouring homes and separating the men from the women and children, police said. A 15th man, shot six times, was in critical condition in hospital.ISKANDARIYA — Mortar bombs killed seven people and wounded 10 in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.BAGHDAD — Four U.S. Marines were killed in combat on Wednesday in two separate attacks in western Anbar province, the U.S. military said on Thursday.FALLUJA — U.S. forces said they killed 13 insurgents in an air strike on two suspected foreign fighter safe houses near the town of Ameriya, near the western city of Falluja. Ahmed al-Ami, a doctor in Falluja hospital, said more than 30 bodies, including those of seven children, were brought in.#*# AZIZIYA — A car bomb in a vegetable market killed 17 people and wounded 27 in the town of Aziziya, about 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.#*# MOSUL — Police found 16 bodies in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, during the past 24 hours. Among the dead were five policemen, police said.#*# BAGHDAD — Police found 20 bodies in Baghdad, all apparent victims of sectarian killings.#*# HADITHA — A suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint north of Haditha in Anbar province, killing seven policemen and wounding three, police said.#*# BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked a joint Iraqi army-police checkpoint in central Baghdad, killing an army officer and a soldier and wounding three policemen and one soldier.#*# GARMA — Police found the bodies of three people with gunshot wounds in the head in the town of Garma, near Falluja, 50km (35 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.
Read Iraq Seen Plain — By Michael Ledeen
Lifesaving Device
By Deroy Murdock
Imagine that tomorrow at daybreak, in a remote Afghan village, U.S. Special Forces seize Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian doctor who now serves Osama bin Laden as the de facto vice president of al-Qaeda. American GIs handcuff him and whisk him to an undisclosed location for questioning. Zawahiri’s head brims with first-hand knowledge of still-unfolding Islamofascist conspiracies to murder and maim Americans. Specifically, Zawahiri struggles to mask his excitement over a Special Day of Infidel Doom that he and his associates have arranged against symbols of “U.S. decadence.” If all goes according to plan, Zawahiri reassures himself while awaiting interrogation, teams of Muslim fanatics will deal America an aching blow on New Year’s Day:
Read Lifesaving Device — By Deroy Murdock
The Problem With Pastor Mike
By Peter Wehner
Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has written an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, the first two paragraphs of which are stunningly silly, misguided, and unfortunately for Huckabee, deeply revealing. The two opening paragraphs read this way:The United States, as the world's only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised.American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists. At the same time, my administration will never surrender any of our sovereignty, which is why I was the first presidential candidate to oppose ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty, which would endanger both our national security and our economic interests.Where ought one to begin untangling this unholy mess?
Read The Problem With Pastor Mike — By Peter Wehner
Dr. J CAIRs
An Interview with the Author
M. Zuhdi Jasser dreams of a Muslim Counterterrorism Unit, Jack Bauer-style.In truth, his dreams are his work. Jasser, a former U.S. Navy lieutenant commander is president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix, Arizona. In an extensive interview with National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez, Jasser talks about his military service, the duties of Muslims in America, how to destroy Islamofacism, and more. Today we run part two of three with Dr. Jasser. Read part one here. Lopez: It’s hard not to admire Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But does it depress you that so many who are willing to speak out the loudest against Islamic extremism are atheists or have otherwise rejected Islam? Jasser: As a strong believer in God, I prefer to look at life’s challenges, rather than lose valuable time in non-productive feelings of depression. But I know what you mean. The fact that many of these loudest voices are atheists or former Muslims can be frustrating, but is not surprising to me, at least at this stage in the ideological battle against political Islam.
Read Dr. J CAIRs — An Interview with the Author
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